It's Really Her
by PoolsInTheLibrary
Summary: The Doctor and the Ponds are just trying to have one of their normal, run-of-the-mill, run-for-your-life adventures when a certain pink and yellow human appears out of nowhere. Beaten and abused, Rose is rescued by a new Doctor, but how long until she can trust his new face? Warning: none too light on the Rose!whump, tho she's always been my favorite character. T, subject to change


The Doctor cursed as the TARDIS lurched, stolen out of the Time Vortex. The screen flashed the words 'DISTRESS CALL' at him, the engines whirring as it flew itself to the source of the signal.

Amy stumbled into the console room, Rory trailing directly behind her.

"What the hell is this, Doctor? You promised us a break!" Amy shouted, glaring at the Time Lord as he raced around the console, twisting knobs and hitting the metal with a rubber mallet she couldn't recall seeing before.

"Its the TARDIS," the Doctor shouted, his eyes showing a maniac glee at the prospect of an adventure. "She's locked on to a distress call, she's taking us there as we speak!"

"Can you at least tell us where it is we're going?" Amy huffed in annoyance, gripping the wall for support as the TARDIS shuddered.

The Doctor looked hurt as he turned to face at her. "Of course I can!"

Amy looked at him pointedly.

"Right, yes." He stopped fiddling with buttons and hung the mallet underneath the console. "Just a second, then we'll have our distress signal." He pointed his sonic at the screen. "Not sure who could be in distress here, this _is_ the most peaceful quadrant of the universe…" The sonic increased in pitch for a moment before it stopped and the Doctor returned it to his coat pocket. "All right, just a moment and then we'll be set!"

He fiddled with the screen for a moment more before turning back to his companions.

"Are you ready, Ponds?" he said in an almost-challenge.

"Just play the stupid message!" Amy snapped, a smile on her face.

His smile widened as his eyes darted back to the console.

"Geronimo!''

Music burst forth from the console, sung in an alien language. It sang desperately, its voice reaching out hopefully, almost begging for help.

"Doctor? Shouldn't the TARDIS translate this? It definitely sounds like there are words in it somewhere. Or does the TARDIS not do music?" Rory asked, looking between Amy and the console.

The Doctor was silent, staring at the console open-mouthed. He grasped at knobs, cursing at the screens as he once again fumbled around the console.

"Doctor?"

"No, no, this can't be right.." he muttered to himself, "its not possible…."

"What isn't?"

The Doctor desperately grappled with the machine, attempting to stop the TARDIS from hurtling through space. He flipped a red lever, grinning triumphantly as the sound of the engine ground to a stop.

"Oi! What's that about?" Amy shouted, glaring at the Doctor.

"Nothing no-"

He groaned as the engines started again, glaring the screen as it flashed red.

"'Manual Control Override?!" he whined. "Seriously?!"

"Doctor!"

"_What?_" he moaned, looking for all the world like a child whose favorite toy stopped working.

"What is going on?" Amy said, enunciating each word slowly.

"Oh, right." His hands flew to his hair before he could stop them. He scolded his traitorous hands before continuing. "That was the song of a TARDIS."

"But you said you have the last one?" Rory said, unsure.

"I do have the last one! _My _TARDIS is the last one in existence! They're all _dead_," he ranted, his voice breaking on the word 'dead.' The TARDIS' presence in his mind amplified, a silent source of comfort nudging his consciousness. "The thing is, a TARDIS only sings, well sings like this, when its in _extreme_ danger. Usually, by now at least, the Time Lords piloting it would have sent out a distress message themselves, a signal broadcasting to the closest TARDIS. Yet we've gotten nothing and we're in the _only_ TARDIS…"

"So this is bad?" Rory asked, pulling himself closer to the console with the railings.

"Well, yes," the Doctor began, "_but_ think about it! A TARDIS! Time Lords! Maybe some lived, maybe I'm not alone any more." His smile was bright, even if his eyes were haunted. "For the love of all things sane, put some clothes on!" the Doctor shouted, his eyes focusing on the pajamas Amy and Rory were sporting. "No one goes adventuring in Christmas pajamas unless they're on Delta-67!"

The console whirred as the blue box entered the atmosphere, shaking with renewed vigor as it crashed to the surface. For a moment, everything was suspended in air before the TARDIS shuddered, touching down on the planet lightly.

"Alright, old girl," he said softly, "where are we?"

The screen returned to normal, coordinates illuminating the corner in High Gallifreyan.

"Gamma-609?" he asked incredulously. "Haven't been there in a while…"

The screen flashed again, a picture this time, of a bright scarlet landscape illuminated by the violet sky.

The Doctor groaned as he heard the shower turn on from farther down the corridor. "Stupid apes and their stupid _needs_!" the Doctor muttered. His green eyes lit up with excitement. "Guess there's no harm in doing some pre-adventure exploring!" With a grin he rushed to the doors, sparing one final glance at the corridor before exiting the TARDIS.

The Doctor froze in the doorway of the TARDIS, his eyes locked on the figure of a girl that laid on the ground, huddled before him.

Limp, stringy hair clung to her face, her eyes wide and feral as she stared at him. Her cheekbones stuck out harshly, straining against the pale, mutilated skin. Bones jutted out from beneath the torn rags she donned as clothing, the fabric filthy and caked with blood. Tiny crimson rivulets ran down her face, bright against the paleness of her skin. She shook harshly, her muscles twitching as she glanced up at him, debating whether or not to flee. Her ripped and jagged nails dug into her palm as she opened her mouth to speak. A small sound of fear escaped before her voice failed her, her throat far too shredded for proper speaking. Screams echoed in her ears, her own screams haunting her, and imagined dirty hands trailed down her sides, her front, everywhere. Her stomach clenched with nausea and hunger gnawed at her mind.

The Doctor gasped as he stared down his sonic screwdriver. _It was her_. It was Rose, his precious Rose. She was often a part of his nightmares, her brown eyes locking with his, full of tears as he left her again. His hearts ached with love as he watched her, frozen in the door of the TARDIS, but his mind was riddled with doubt. He'd thought about all the possible ways to get her back, but they'd all ended in paradoxes or the end of both their universes, He tried, never wanting to give up, but his search for a way to get her back kept rewarding him with only thing that kept him going was his knowledge that she never wanted to see him lose hope. He kept up his act for her.

He sighed, Rose was keeping him safe, even when she wasn't there. That was so… so fantastically _Rose_ of her.

But… she couldn't be real, he'd left her in another universe and then locked the door behind her. There was no way she could be here. But she sat there, staring up at him through her brown eyes, no longer warm, but bloodshot and wild. One of her eyes had a translucent film across it, dulling the color of her eye until it was near white and horribly pale.

He was afraid. His legs itched to turn and run, back into the TARDIS and away from her, fearing it was but another of his hallucinations. But he couldn't leave her, not like this. She was his Rose, his pink and yellow girl, his stupid ape, and he couldn't stand to see her in this condition. He took a tentative step forward, whispering calming words as he approached her.

Her eyes widened impossibly further, her soft cries turning into desperate whimpers as she attempted to drag herself away from him. He watched her right arm attempt to straighten but quickly stilled, a flash of white bone poking through the skin right before her elbow. Cradling her arm, she began to rock, ignoring the blood that cascaded through the new wound and the man that edged closer to her.

He pocketed the sonic as he ventured nearer, his hearts pounding loudly with each step. She just couldn't be here. It was impossible, but the impossible seemed like a consistent part of his life, always there, never making sense. He was almost used to it, but every now and then something like this would happen and the absurdity of it all would crash down on him again.

Rose was still rocking when he reached her, her eyes still hidden as she pressed them against her knees, whimpering into her dark world. He carefully wrapped his arms around her, feeling the sharp points of her bones as he picked her up bridal style. She was light in his arms, weighing half of what he could remember. Her bare skin burned with fever and a sheen of sweat coated her.

He felt her twitch and push and knew she was struggling, fighting his hold on her, but she was too weak to displace his strong arms. He turned towards the TARDIS, his jaw locked tight as her whimpers assaulted his ears and her clenched fist beat against his chest. After a few steps, he felt her struggling lessen until, finally, it ceased all together and she went limp in his arms. His throat tightened, his eyes locked firmly on his blue box, looking past the open door and at the blueish glow of the console.

He stepped through the entrance, shutting the door with his leg as he strode purposefully through the control room and towards the med-bay.

From the moment he entered the TARDIS, he felt her worry, her recognition and knew she had relocated the room and put it right next to the control room. He heard her humming excitedly over Rose, felt her music and the worrisome notes that rang throughout her heart. She was rejoicing as her Bad Wolf had returned, but she felt her fading and was attempting to reach out. Swirling golden tendrils of light strained from the console and the walls, reaching for his Rose. They reached longingly for Rose as he crossed the threshold into the med-bay.

He noticed the same golden light falling through his fingers, dripping like her blood onto the floor of the TARDIS where it was pooling. The light was falling faster and faster, the puddle amassing on the floor growing larger and larger. As he laid her down gently on the chair, he saw a form pulling itself from the puddle, dragging a massive body out front the floor of the TARDIS.

"What are you? Where did you come from?" he asked, he felt around in his coat pocket for the sonic. The creature began to take form as it slowly rose up.

It was huge, thats the first thing the Doctor noticed. Well, the first thing he noticed was how huge the teeth that stuck out from the large muzzle were.

The beast was coated in golden fur that swirled with the essence of the time vortex, its eyes were burning pools of black floating in the constantly moving sea of gold. Its lip curled up to expose black teeth with perfect points and elegant curves, hard and tangible against its swirling coat. Pinned against its neck were its ears, which occasionally swiveled towards the sleeping figure on the bed. Instead of a growl, the Doctor heard music that echoed with anger and fear and betrayal. The music came from all around the animal, resonated from all around it, and from around his Rose.

The Doctor stared down the beast, one hand on his sonic, the other on Rose's still form. His eyes flicked between his Rose and the beast and he wanted to laugh.

Of course, it was a wolf.

He let a laugh loose. One terrible, hysterical, desperate laugh loose, hearing the haunting music falter as the wolf's ears twitched slightly. The snarl faded from the wolf's face and it took a hesitant step forward, its head low, the music loosing the harshness as it dissolved to fear.

"Oi, Doctor, where'd you run off to-" Amy called, her sentence dying off as she took in the scene in front of her. Her face paled, her body stiffening at the spirit-like animal in front of her jumped to face her, turning quickly to face the new threat. The music emanating from the wolf grew in pitch, the dangerous notes returning to the haunting melody. "Uh, Doctor? What exactly is _that?_" She asked, her voice high and strained.

"This, Amy, is the most powerful being in the whole, entire universe. I've seen her atomize an entire race without a problem," the Doctor said, straining every word. "And, right now, she's very, _very_ frightened. Not the best combination. Could be worse, I suppose. But it isn't bad she's here. It's bloody fantastic," he rambled, a hint of a smile gracing his lips.

"Uh, Doctor, I don't mean to _interrupt _or anythin, but I don't think she's too happy with me right now," Amy asked, her voice cracking as the wolf took a step closer. She let out an undignified squeak, retreating back a step.

"Oh Amy," he began, a smirk evident in his voice. "She's hurt and afraid, show her you're not afraid, that you want to help her." The humor left his voice, his tone suddenly serious. "After all, who's afraid of the big Bad Wolf?"

The wolf's head swung around towards the Doctor, her tail lowering as she stared sadly into the eyes of the Time-lord. The rage once again left the music and the wolf seemed to deflate, the magnificent, golden glow of her coat dimming as she sagged where she stood. Taking labored steps toward the hospital bed, she sat down, staring at the Doctor with desperate eyes.

Amy edged around the walls of the room, her eyes finally settling on the bed. "Who's that, Doctor?" she asked softly, her eyes flicking towards the man that had pushed himself away from the bed and was now gathering up medical equipment. She heard him muttering to himself, but the words seemed alien, the TARDIS failing to translate this language.

The Doctor pulled machines over to the bedside, some that Amy recognized, like the heart monitor and the portable IV, and some that she didn't. He was still talking to himself, much too fast for her to tell if he was speaking English or not, rarely pausing except the moments that involved sticking a needle into the girl. Every time he pricked, prodded, or hooked the girl up to something, he flinched, his eyes flicking between the girl's face and what he was doing.

"Will someone give me some bloody answers?" Amy asked, more forcefully. Both heads swiveled towards her, as if they'd forgotten that she was there and had only just been reminded. The Scottish girl flushed as red as her hair but met their gazes with equal strength. "Who is that, Doctor? Who is that girl? What is that… that animal?" Amy noticed the wolf's nostrils flaring at the use of her word 'animal.'

"I am the Bad Wolf." A voice answered, echoing throughout the whole room, though no one looked like they'd spoken. "I am Rose Tyler. I am everything, and nothing at all. I bring life, I create myself." The voice was soft, but the underlying power was unmistakable, and it sang throughout the room, full of despair and longing, of sadness and pain, of loss and tragedy.

"What happened to her?" Amy asked, looking questioningly at the wolf as the Doctor continued with the girl. "How'd she end up like that? And how'd she get here?" Amy edged closer, her hesitant steps carrying her closer to the sickbed.

"We've been alone for a long time. Separated even from each other. They found a way to keep me from her." The wolf hung its head. "I could not protect us. I could feel her pain as if it were my own. They did horrible things to us. Unspeakable things. I found her after so long, and I brought us here. We've missed it here. We've missed our Thief." The pain was evident in the voice.

"What did they do to her?" the Doctor said, his voice low and dangerous. "Who did this to her?" His fist slammed onto the counter, the muscles in his jaw flexing.

"In time, my Thief," the voice began. After a pause, the voice continued, growing more urgent. "We cannot merge, Doctor. We try but it hurts us. I cannot sustain her unless we're merged. We're incomplete without each other." The voice grew frantic. "We hurt when we're apart, but when we merge the pain is exponentially increased. We called to you, Doctor. A wolf howling for the Storm. She knew you'd help us, Doctor. Save us. We never lost our faith." The wolf's black eyes followed the Doctor as he finished hooking the machines up to the girl, Rose, Amy placed.

"What is that music, Doctor?" Amy asked, her head cocking slightly as she listened to the mournful melody that wove throughout the room.

"That, Amelia Pond, is the sound of the universe," the Doctor said with a small smile. "Well, more accurately, it's the sound of the Bad Wolf, a sentient piece of the Time Vortex, a part of the Heart of the TARDIS." The Doctor reached into his coat and pulled out his sonic, fiddling with it for a moment before scanning Rose.

"That's you?" Amy asked. The Bad Wolf looked at her and nodded, strands of golden energy trailing her movements. "Its beautiful…" Amy closed her eyes, listening to the sorrowful tune. "But… its so… sad." she whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

The wolf nodded. "We've experienced much sadness and loss of late," she began. "We've been beaten and tortured by horrible people but we can survive. We came to you in our faith, do not disappoint us, our Lonely God."

"Excuse my asking," the Doctor started, his frustration evident on his face. "I've seen you bring people back to life, how is it that you cannot heal Rose yourself? Surely, the most powerful being in the universe can manage such a _menial_ task as healing a few wounds." Concern, fear and anger battled for control in his dark green eyes as he tried to steady his voice.

"Don't you think I thought of that, Doctor?" the wolf growled, glaring at the Doctor. "The people," the wolf's head dropped, "they made it so we cannot become one, we cannot fully understand each other. We cannot be sure of what the other wants when we're trapped outside. I can't be sure of her consent."

The Doctor looked up from Rose to stare at the Bad Wolf, hanging her head shamefully. "Why would Rose not want to be healed? Look at her, she's obviously in pain! Why do you need her _consent_?" He spat out the last word, confusion and anger fueling his fire. "Unless… Oh, thats it, isn't it?" he said calmly. "You've done something to her. Something unforgivable, haven't you?" He laughed as the wolf shied from him. "But this is Rose, she's not spiteful… What did you do that was _that_ terrible?"

"Oh Doctor, you have not seen what we have witnessed. You are ignorant to our struggle," Bad Wolf said, hackles raised. "Dear Doctor, I have given us immortality," the wolf spoke wearily. "I gave her immunity to death, but not to pain. We cannot die, not unless we will it ourselves."

"Is that why you need her consent? To kill her?" Amy spoke up again, her voice rising angrily. The Doctor's eyes flashed as he began flipping switches on the machines.

"If that is what she desires, then I shall respect her decision. But no, I do intend to heal her, but the pain we would experience will be worse than anything we have experienced before. What we are feeling now is hardly a hundredth of what we would endure if we were to heal. But there is no other way to fix us, your medicine will not work for us anymore. We cannot heal for ourselves while we are separated." The wolf finished, resting her head atop the hospital bed, staring sadly at Rose.

"How could they have separated you?" the Doctor asked. "You are her, she is you, its not as if you're two separate people!" He stopped talking for a moment before growling. "Think! Think! Think! You stupid, useless brain, think!" he said, punctuating each repetition of 'think' with a smack to his own forehead.

"Alternate universe, Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler in an alternate universe. Rose Tyler is the Bad Wolf. Bad Wolf in an alternate universe. Bad Wolf is made of the TARDIS. TARDIS in an alternate universe, batteries die. Bad Wolf in an alternate universe, batteries die. Bad Wolf's batteries die equals a Bad Wolf with no energy. Bad Wolf is weak which means Rose was weak. But _what_ is weak?" The Doctor paused for a moment before nodding to himself. "_Their connection! _If anyone had wanted to separate them, there'd be no better time. The Time Vortex has no power within a Time Lock but humans don't learn of them until around the 93rd century. Something alien must've separated them. Something powerful that'd managed to recreate some sort of Time Lock. Just trap them on opposite sides of the… thing and _shibang_, you've gotten Rose without her Wolf!"

A whimper from the bed cut off the Doctor's rambling. "Doctor!" Rose cried. "Doctor, it hurts." Rose's eyes were squeezed shut, her forehead creased in pain, but she appeared to be asleep.

Even so, the Doctor grasped Rose's hand lightly, trying to avoid touching her in any way that would cause pain. He held her hand gingerly as most of her hand was covered in bruises or blood and her fingernails were jagged and showed the soft skin of the nailbed. His eyes travelled up her arm, his gaze following the hard lines of her bones and the knobby ends of her joints. "You can heal her, can't you?" the Doctor asked, grimacing at Rose's pained expression. "What if I were to give you permission, in her place?"

"I doubt her trust in you is the same as it were before," Bad Wolf began, mournful eyes locked on Rose's face. "But I would accept your consent for you were the one she cried out to for all those years, and as you can tell, she still calls out to you. I'm warning you now that the pain she will experience will exceed anything you've felt in your existence. It will feel as if every cell in her body is being ripped apart slowly, atom by atom, while she burns. It will be worse than that, much worse, but I am making sure that you are definite in your opinion."

The Doctor ran his hand's through his hands worriedly, a habit from his past regeneration that he tried to subdue but often came out when he thought about Rose. "Do it," the Doctor said finally, his answer barely a whisper.

"I have something to ask then, Doctor," Bad Wolf said. "I wish for you to stay here and witness the pain that you've caused us. We will experience it together, not sharing the pain but experiencing it alone, and I am not above resenting you for the pain it will cause me. I am doing this for Rose, Doctor."

The Doctor nodded. "For Rose," he whispered in agreement.

Amy stared down at the girl on the bed, her pitying look graced with wonder. This was the girl the Doctor had pined after, had left, had mourned. And now she was back, worse for wear, abandoned by the Doctor yet she still cried out to him. "I'll stay too," Amy swore. She wanted to be there to comfort the girl, but also, more importantly, the Doctor.

"Amy, you don't nee-" the Doctor began, Amy's harsh Scottish accent cutting him off.

"I want to, Doctor."

"'Course you do, you're Amy Pond," the Doctor said to himself. With a sigh he looked down at Rose again, watching her tense body spasm with pain. The Doctor looked back towards the wolf, running his hand through his floppy brown hair, remembering the way Rose would stare at him as he mussed his hair up further. "Whenever you're ready," he said solemnly.

"Allons-y," the wolf joked, a smirk in its song and its voice.

The wolf dissipated, turning into a cloud of golden dust that hovered above the bed. The song in the room grew to a pitch riddled with fear before it engulfed the sleeping girl on the bed.

The moment the dust touched her skin, she screamed in agony, thrashing about as her tear-filled eyes glowed with golden light. The song in the room screamed in pain, it spoke of a burning pain that made the Doctor's gut clench.

"Rose," the Doctor muttered, taking her head in his arms and hugging her convulsing body to his chest. He repeated her name on an endless loop, his eyes locked on hers. Amy stood stiffly against the rail of the hospital esque bed, tears collecting in her eyes at the music sung out its pain in a beautiful language she couldn't understand. The girl's screaming, the hoarse, fearful screaming that rang throughout the room, echoes of the screams haunting the halls.

Rose was surrounded by swirling gold fire that burnt away scars, searing blood off her skin as it traveled. Amy watched, bathed in light, as the damaged girl in front of her was transformed into the young lady her Doctor had loved, and maybe, still did.

Her screams turned to whimpers as the golden fire faded from her skin, and her body grew limp in the Doctor's arms. He gingerly placed her back on the chair, carefully placing her head on the pillow.

**Hey hey! Its time for everyone's favorite... **

**The author's note!**

**I know, I hate them too, but this one is more of a, "should I continue this rubbish or not," so maybe it'd do someone well to actually read this.  
>I have some pretty good ideas on where I want this story to go, but I'm not sure that I'll end up writing this in the end, I'm not even sure I'll like it after a week. This <em>is<em> my first bit of fanfiction after all. So basically if I get a few likes or a comment or maybe a follow I'll continue this little story, but if it stays dead then I'll just let sleeping dogs lie. **

**So yeah, if you want me to continue, press one of those lovely buttons that I believe are right about down there:**

**\/  
>\**

**Cheers to you all!**


End file.
